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Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina take their 3-week-old son Adian from Imam Nermin Spahic during his Aqeeqah ceremony at their home on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. The ceremony is usually done on the 7th, 14th or 21st, day after birth but because Adian was in the NICU the family wasn't able to do it in accordance with the tradition. Imam Spahic made the trip out to the families home since their mosque has stopped holding services there due to COVID-19.
Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center puts on his ceremonial clothing before performing an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. Brian Powers/The Register

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Imam Nermin Spahic’s mouth moved quietly beneath a medical face mask as he said a prayer over 3-week-old Adian Hasanagic on April 4 at the family's apartment in Waukee.

Adian spent the first three weeks of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). His parents, Fikret and Ersina, had to take turns visiting him because of hospital rules concerning COVID-19.

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Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. (Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)

“My biggest fear is catching the virus,” Fikret said. A self-employed truck driver, Fikret has stopped driving to stay at home and help but also so he wouldn’t be exposed while working.

Originally from Bosnia, the family moved to the United States in 2007 and then to Waukee in 2011 and started attending the Islamic and Cultural Center Bosniak of Des Moines in Granger.

As part of their faith, every newborn child goes through the Aqeeqah ceremony within a few days of their birth. Visitation restrictions meant that couldn’t happen, so the family waited until Adian was able to come home before having Imam Spahic perform the ceremony in their living room.

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Imam Nermin Spahic with the Islamic and Cultural Center performs an Aqeeqah ceremony over 3 week old Adian at the home of Fikret Hasanagic and his wife Ersina on Saturday, April 4, 2020, in Waukee. (Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)

After a handwashing, sanitizing and quick wardrobe change, the imam took the baby and performed the ceremony, which imparts a name onto the young child.

“We have to do what we can to stop the spread,” Spahic said of the delayed ceremony and all the precautions he took before performing it. He added that in times like these, “we must turn to our families” for support.

Brian Powers is a visual journalist at the Des Moines Register. Reach him at bpowers@registermedia.com or follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bpowersphoto. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.